Brilliant prints of Liverpool in the 1980s

Photographer Dave Sinclair photographed Britain at a time of social unrest. As official photographer for The Militant, Dave saw first hand the turmoil in his native Liverpool, Belfast and London, where he now lives. He attended Liverpool College of Art, learning to draw under the brilliant Nicholas Horsefield.

“Whilst studying I’d moved out of my family house into a ‘hard to let’ council flat in the rundown dock area of Liverpool 5,” says Dave. “I was surrounded by derelict industrial buildings including Tate & Lyle sugar refiners, British American Tobacco, Bibby food processing and miles of abandoned dock buildings. I wanted to paint my environment so started taking photos as a sort of note taking and did make some colour landscape collages.

“When I was introduced to black and white photography by a friend, I built my own darkroom. I started making prints with far more drama and humanity that I could get into a painting. I would spend many hours walking around Liverpool, exploring empty places like Council estates and going into derelict dock buildings, wandering the streets taking photos, mostly housing and post-industrial landscape – but it was in a time when kids would pester you to take their photo.

“A fundamental difference between the time I took these photos and today is the general attitude towards photographing children. Back then there was little, or no paranoia compared to now. Kids on the street would run up to me asking if I was from the Echo. I’d say no, but they’d insist I’d have to take a group shot, and I did so they’d leave me alone. Some of these shots are now my favourite photos and I take little credit for them because the kids’ insistence is what made me take the pictures. These turned out to be some of my favourite photos from that time.”

You can buy prints of Dave’s brilliant photographs in the Flashbak prints shop.